The NKBA Community Restoration Project Competition is back.
The NKBA’s philanthropic Community Restoration Project is back for its second year, and is calling on Chapters for their proposals to help in their local areas.
All NKBA chapters in the U.S. and Canada are eligible to enter the competition, with a goal of restoring a community building that has a kitchen or bath — and using some volunteer student labor to help build awareness of career pathways in this field. NKBA will award one chapter a $25,000 grant to apply toward the project. The program is a part of the NKBA NextUp program, which seeks to recruit and empower a well-prepared workforce and cultivate the next generation of talented skilled trade professionals.
Each chapter may submit one proposal to restore a community-service building within the chapter’s territory, and must detail how it will allocate the grant funds. The proposed project must be submitted by a chapter officer or designated individual. If the project scope exceeds the $25,000 grant, the chapter must be willing to fundraise or spend chapter funds to cover additional costs.
Since the NKBA Community Restoration project aims to provide opportunities for skilled laborers and shine a spotlight on the need for skilled tradespeople, the winning chapter should plan to enlist local high school and college students to participate in the restoration.
With the continuing uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, however, NKBA and the winning chapter will monitor and assess local safety conditions in 2021. The winning chapter will need to adapt the restoration process accordingly to best serve students who cannot attend because of pandemic-related restrictions. For instance the winner of the 2020 competition, the Rocky Mountain Chapter, is developing a virtual aspect of the project implementation that students will experience. Rocky Mountain’s proposal was to renovate the kitchen at the Mountain Resource Center, a non-profit, community-based organization that provides a safe and accessible place for individuals and families to connect with critical services, such as food-pantry access, veterans services, healthy living and workforce education, disaster relief, nutrition and cooking classes.
All submissions are due by Nov. 15, 2020, and the winner will be chosen on Dec. 1, 2020, by an NKBA panel of qualified judges that approves the chapter’s concept. There is no entry fee, and the 2021 Chapter Officers will be responsible for overseeing the winning project. For more information, or to submit a project, click here.
